Exhaust Gas Cleaning 

With Aalborg Industries’ exhaust gas cleaning system it is possible to clean the exhaust 

gas from the ship’s main, auxiliary engines 

and boilers by scrubbing the exhaust gas 

in an open loop with sea water or a closed 

loop with fresh water. Due to it’s hybrid 

functions it provides a unique modular and 

flexible design with the highest degree of 

operational flexibility.

Using the exhaust gas cleaning system 

from Aalborg Industries enables shipowners to continue operating on heavy fuel oil 

instead of more expensive marine gas oil in 

order to meet the new IMO regulation, limiting the amount of sulphur in exhaust gas, 

coming into force in 2015 (ECA areas) and 

2020 (worldwide).
Above: Installation of the exhaust 

gas scrubber in the funnel of DFDS’ 

Ro-Ro vessel “Tor Ficaria”.

Below: Exhaust gas scrubber 

illustration.

Exhaust Gas Scrubber facts

n Cost-saving solution (able to operate on HFO 

instead of expensive low sulphur MGO)

n Short payback time (1 to 2 years)

n Exhaust gas cleaning system in compliance 

with MARPOL Annex VI – MEPC 58 and 59 

n Sulphur removal rate >98% (exceeding the 

IMO requirements) 

n Particulate Matter (PM) trapping up to 80% 

n A unique and flexible solution allowing the 

exhaust gas scrubber to switch between sea 

water (open loop) and fresh water (closed 

loop)

n Built on well-proven technology and tested 

at MAN Diesel’s test facilities 

n The world’s largest M.E. exhaust gas scrubber (21 MW) installed and in operation. 

n Operating in closed loop mode only generates sludge in very small quantities

n Operation power consumption: approximately 1.5% of engine power

Introduction

The most strict sulphur emission limits can be found 

within emission controlled 

areas (ECA) as of 2015 (0.1 

% sulphur allowed in fuel) 

while globally regulations 

enter into force from 2020 

(0.5 % sulphur allowed in 

fuel) onwards. At the MEPC 

58th Oct 2008 meeting, it 

was also finally settled that 

exhaust gas cleaning systems 

are allowed as an alternative 

to meet the sulphur emission 

requirements. In fact, there 

is no limit on the sulphur 

content in the fuel if a ship is equipped with 

an exhaust gas cleaning system. Exhaust gas 

cleaning systems have significant economical 

and environmental advantages. 

Experience

Aalborg Industries has more than 40 years 

of experience supplying scrubbers as an 

integrated part of Inert Gas Systems (IGS) 

onboard ships. During 2008, our experiences 

from these systems were used to design and 

test an exhaust gas cleaning system at the 

MAN Diesel (1 MW engine) test facilities in 

Denmark. 

Installation on large Ro-Ro vessel

The knowledge and experience from these 

tests were successively used to design an 

entire exhaust gas cleaning system onboard 

DFDS’ Ro-Ro vessel “Tor Ficaria”. 

A modular and flexible exhaust gas scrubber 

design with a high degree of operational 

flexibility as well as future possibilities for 

upgrading the equipment has been chosen 

for the Ro-Ro vessel “Tor Ficaria”. 

Installed after the 21 MW MAN engine, it 

is by far be the world’s largest exhaust gas 

cleaning system installed onboard a ship. 

The design work has been carried out in 

close co-operation with the marine engineers from DFDS and MAN Diesel. 

Comprehensive test scheme has been ongoing since several months through a range of 
Below: the Ro-Ro vessel “Tor Ficaria” 

with the scrubber installed in the 

modified funnel.

As pioneer in this business we are 

also experienced in the legislation 

and cooperation with local environmental authorities.

Exhaust Gas Cleaning

Exhaust Gas Cleaning Arrangement

operation conditions to secure full compliance 

with the 2015 Marpol Annex VI legislation.

MAN Diesel has participated intensively in 

the design work to ensure a smooth and safe 

interface with the main engine. 

Switch between sea water and 

fresh water operation

The hybrid system will be able to operate with 

sea water (open loop) and fresh water (closed 

loop). At open sea, the system operates with 

sea water and in harbours and estuaries the 

system can operate on fresh water in a closed 

loop system, without generating any significant amount of sludge to be handled at 

port calls.

The Exhaust Gas Cleaning system has been 

developed with a view for upgrade opportunities within design for compliance with 

future legislation.

Case studies

Aalborg Industries offers case study consultancy for Exhaust Gas Cleaning solutions 

for new building and retrofit. To initiate a 

case study on your vessel, please contact:

exhaust-gas-cleaning@aalborg-industries.com

Closed circuit

Open circuit
DATA SHEET series

© Aalborg Industries, Rev. 1, August 2010 , SMM

exhaust-gas-cleaning@aalborg-industries.com

www.aalborg-industries.com

About Aalborg Industries

Aalborg Industries is the leading supplier of steam boilers, thermal fluid heaters, heat exchangers and inert gas systems. We 

offer reliable, innovative and environmentally friendly products 

with a low life cycle cost. The Aalborg Industries Group operates 

a Global After Sales service from its companies in 14 countries.

Among Aalborg Industries’ latest environmentally friendly products and technologies are ballast water treatment systems based 

on a unique combination of UV light and ultrasound, new and 

cost-saving sulphur emission abatement technologies to clean 

exhaust gas from ship engines and a continued optimisation of 

large waste heat recovery boilers.

Other green solutions involve the MISSIONTM TCi boiler series, 

MGO burner modifications, superheaters for aux. boilers, cooling systems for LNG, economizers after aux. diesel engines and 

electrical steam generation.

CONTACT US: 

Denmark: +45 99 30 40 00

China: +86 21 6164 2077 

Japan: +81 78 271 5720

Netherlands: +31 243523100

UAE: +971 4 3241 061

USA: +1 954 435 5999

	Brazil: +55 24 2233 9963 

 Finland: +358 10 838 3100

 Korea: +82 51 703 6162

 Singapore: +65 6261 9898

 UK: +44 1924 242500

	Vietnam: +84 4 3936 28 32